Downtown Diner

This review is for breakfast. My wife and I are new to the area and on occasion we like to have breakfast out so we started scouting the area for a new go to place.
Of course there is the Cracker Barrel down the road, but we find those type of places too commercial, crappy food and rather expensive. So what brought me to the Downtown Diner were my fellow Unilocalers.
We arrive at the Diner around 8:30 AM, on a Saturday, so perhaps a bit early for the morning rush, as we were seated promptly and our waitress was extremely friendly & quick. She made sure our drinks never got close to being empty!
The menu had a good number of items to choose from and kept it simple, hash browns, eggs sunny side up, sausage, and toast. Yea, it’s easy, but as most of you know, there are a lot of places which can good this up big time. But not here at the Downtown Diner. Nothing was overly greasy, or dry. I do like a little grease, and it was just right here. The sausages were really good, the eggs cooked perfectly and the has browns were good and at the right temperature too!
The Diner it kind of large, and a lot of cool things hanging about to look at… several items caught my attention enough here I had to go and take a closer look.
My wife and I really enjoyed our first visit and I’m sure we will be back ! In fact, I do plan on coming here and giving the Downtown Diner a try for Lunch & Dinner as well.

Stopped here on our way back up from a weekend camping and kayaking on Lake Shelbyville and had a really good late lunch. The buffet included, among other things, fried chicken (delicious and juicy without being greasy), barbecued ribs, turkey and stuffing, and tasty chicken noodles (you know you’re in Pennsylvania Dutch country, even in Illinois, when chicken noodles are on the menu!) I noticed that the carrots were cooked the way I do them myself (simmered with a little butter and sugar, tender but not mushy) and my husband had two helpings of the green beans with bacon and onions. Good comfort food, cooked well, in a cheery, homey atmosphere. And their coffee is great, too. It’s nice to know this place exists!

We venture into Mattoon every couple years and this has been our go to spot.
The quintessential small town diner that has probably looked the same for the past 50 years and they’re doing things up the way they should be.
We tend to come in for breakfast, as any good diner should be doing. The DD is certainly doing it up right. Nothing out of the ordinary — just good old fashioned eggs, bacon, pancakes, french toast and the proper fixins.
Our every time go to is the corned beef hash — mama and papa love them some delicious CBH! Most of the options run in the $ 4 – 8 range and the buffet will get you just about everything, including fruit, for something like $ 6. Good coffee and some delightful waitresses that have worked here for a long time and give you just enough crap to know they care! Seriously, there is something incredibly endearing about a waitress with military style forearm tattoos!
Great spot to stop anytime you’re around. Nostalgia abounds, both in the ambiance and the food.

Servers are always so friendly. Food is ok for diner food, always seems greasy. Long wait for food.

Stopped here to meet my brother for breakfast when we were both in the area traveling for business… breakfast was excellent! The sausage was very well made… not in house, but delicious nonetheless. At least it wasn’t frozen, pressed patties. I prefer a more robust cup coffee, so was a little disappointed. A small investment in a bit better coffee would easily make this 5 stars in my opinion.

Great diner food! Meatloaf without the aid of green peppers!!! Mashed potatoes were ok. Green beans made with bacon and onions the way they are supposed to be. :) Tonya was great make sure and ask for her!

This place is average on its best days. I always leave unimpressed, and I have been there enough times to get a good feel for the menu, wait staff, etc. I grew up with homemade meals daily, I think the people that love this place must have grown up on microwave dinners. It’s only upside is the lack of options in Mattoon, so that puts it past two stars.
Food — Bland, lacks flavor and seems «old».
Service — Slow, very talkative and distracted.
Atmosphere — Crowded tables, confined.
Pies — Decent, good enough.

The food is pretty good for diner food. It was somewhat cold however. Also, the price for what I had was a little steep. However, this is one of the better food places available in Mattoon.

Decent diner food.
With a limited choice of restaurants in Mattoon, we decided to try a local diner, because in small towns, these types of restaurants are usually the best. We went for lunch and it was bustling. My husband had the clam chowder, which we both agreed is one of the best chowda’s we had and could compete with any chowda from the East Coast. He also had the clam strips — a bit overcooked, but still good.
I had a patty melt and fried pickles — patty melt was good, but the pickles were extremely salty. They need to either change the pickle that they are using, or cut down on any seasoning in the batter.
Wanted to try some pie, but we were both stuffed by the time we were done with lunch.
Good portions and a good selection on the menu. May return for dinner.

I can definitely see this becoming a regular breakfast place for me. The food was awesome and the staff was always there to refill my coffee.

Great omelletes and pancakes

Great food & good service :) Love the pie!!!

Food is great but there’s always a long wait to get it. Servers are friendly.

My daughter and I enjoyed lunch at Downtown Diner. We had beef and noodles with green beans that were as good as my Grandmother used to make. The salad selection was just ok, but this isn’t really the place for
health food :-) We followed our meal with a slice of the BEST coconut cream pie I have ever eaten in my life! I should also mention that the service was excellent!

I had pancakes and pie for lunch. That’s right, don’t judge. Both were yummy. I had blueberry pancakes and the pie was apple. Simple, honest, good food. I need to go back again and have some more pie…

The guys at Pilson Motors recommended this place when I was there to buy a new Mustang (I’ll be reviewing Pilson Motors after I get my new car but so far they’re great). The coffee at Downtown Diner was delicious. I gulped down three cups before my food even arrived. I had a meat omlette with bacon in it. Very good. The hash browns were also quite good. My car salesman recommended their stuffed French Toast and their sausage patties, so I ordered them, too. Excellent. The sausage patty had great flavor, though it was a bit thin. The hostess/​waitress was friendly and effecient. There were many local regulars there at the time. Seems they all knew each other and the staff and everyone was friendly and cordial. It was obvious that this was a favorite spot for locals. I will have more business with Pilson in the weeks ahead and plan to stop in the Downtown Diner on those occasions.

This place has the best coffee. It is ground fresh daily. The brand is Golden Arbor. I have looked for it with no luck. The food is great and very affordable.

My husband and I had breakfast there yesterday morning. Both the food and service was excellent, and prices were reasonable!!! We will definitely eat there again !

I love this place. The people are nice. The food is good and fresh. They have regional favorites – corn mush and bread pudding. I had a rib eye and egg breakfast, it was so nostalgic it almost made me weep.
And, oh baby, the homemade pies – I made up a new song for them.
Yummy, yummy, yummy, Mr. Pie, get down in my tummy. You taste so good to me. All I wanna do is feel your deliciousness on my taste buddies and start a flavor party in me.

Always on the lookout for diners at breakfast time, I pretty much chose Downtown Diner because it had the word «Diner» in the name. Also because I didn’t really want to go to Cracker Barrel.
Located almost next door to the train station, this is a pretty typical diner. Not the good old fashioned silver-​sided building, but a plain storefront.
I was hoping for more of a varied breakfast menu seeing as how this place does bill itself as a diner, and most diners have huge selections of breakfast items including all kinds of «combo» plates. This place doesn’t really offer that — they have a basic menu of meat (ham, steak, sausage) with two eggs, they have four omelet choices, and then they have pancakes and some waffles. The «Specials» board also offered four different «skillets» which were the same four omelets on the menu, but in skillet form instead of omelet form. Oh and of course they have biscuits and gravy.
I had a «ham steak» and eggs (ordered mine over easy), hash browns, and toast (white, wheat, or rye). It was pretty good. The ham steak was decent sized, but thin, and the eggs were cooked just fine, and the hash browns were OK. Toast came buttered and with a couple little plastic box thingies of jelly. Coffee was on the weak side (but then again I’m used to very strong coffee, so pretty much any restaurant coffee is too weak for me).
The one thing I didn’t have, but looked amazing, were the pies. Chocolate cream pie, coconut cream pie, etc. looked really good and I think they’re all made there. They also had some fruit pies that looked good. I may have to go back for the pie experience…
All in all, I feel that it was a good choice. I was supporting a local business which I like to do, rather than going to a big chain restaurant, and the food was pretty much what I was expecting. My biggest disappointment was the lack of a bigger/​more varied menu. But I say if you’re in Mattoon at breakfast time, the Downtown Diner is a good bet.